antitrust

The European Union's competition commissioner says he's open to settling his antitrust investigation into Google's search practices.

Joaquin Almunia held a news briefing today, saying that his office would be willing to come to a "quick resolution on the competition issues" that Google is facing, so competition can be restored across the continent.

"Google has repeatedly expressed to me its willingness to discuss any concerns that the Commission might have without having to engage in adversarial proceedings," Almunia said. "This is why today I'm giving Google an opportunity to offer remedies … Read more

Simon & Schuster, one of the five major book publishers accused in multiple lawsuits of conspiring with Apple to fix e-book prices, has settled the complaint filed by numerous states' attorney generals, CNET has learned.

Denise Cote, the federal judge overseeing the three different antitrust complaints pending against Apple and the defendant publishers, granted a motion Tuesday to dismiss Simon & Schuster (owned by CNET's parent company, CBS) from the complaint. This suit was originally filed by the attorney generals from Texas as well as 15 other state AGs. More states have joined that suit as plaintiffs; 29 are … Read more

It's a good thing legal action is Mozilla's "last resort" for resolving its disagreement with Microsoft over bringing Firefox to the upcoming Windows RT, because it's likely a difficult antitrust case to make.

That's because Windows RT, the version of the operating system geared for devices using ARM processors, is a different beast than conventional Windows running on traditional x86 processors. Microsoft's present rules would hobble non-IE browsers on Windows RT, but the company's market power is with Windows on x86 chips.

ARM chips dominate today's smartphone and tablet devices running … Read more

Microsoft's move to prevent major browsers from reaching the Windows RT desktop has resulted in a fierce war of words from its browser rivals, including Mozilla and Google.

In what will likely come as a further headache for Microsoft, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee plans to look at the allegations that Microsoft's decision may once again lead it down the antitrust path.

Aide to the Chair of the Antitrust Subcommittee, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), confirmed there were plans to look into Mozilla's claim that Microsoft has engaged in anticompetitive behavior.

Windows RT shares the same user … Read more

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Microsoft muscles aside other browsers and cements the dominance of Internet Explorer. The browser market, deprived of competition, stagnates.

That, of course, is what happened during the first browser war of the 1990s and beyond, on personal computers. Today, Mozilla's top lawyer warned that Microsoft's behavior threatens a repeat of history, because it's telling Mozilla that it's barring Firefox from forthcoming Windows 8 machines that use ARM processors.

"They're trying to make a new version of their operating system which denies their users choice, competition, … Read more

Do Google and other search engines have a constitutional right to control their own search results?

The answer is yes, at least in the opinion of UCLA law professor and First Amendment scholar Eugene Volokh.

In a report commissioned by the search giant (PDF), Volokh asserts that search results are a type of "opinion" based on what information the search engines believe would be most relevant to their users, according to news site PaidContent. Therefore, the results are protected by the First Amendment.

"Google, Microsoft's Bing, Yahoo Search and other search engine companies are rightly seen … Read more

Google has another country to worry about in its fight against antitrust complaints.

India's Competition Commission announced today that it has launched an antitrust investigation into the search giant's practices on its advertising platform, AdWords. There is a chance, the agency said, that it could expand its investigation into other areas.

Google has been hit from all sides as regulators in the U.S. and European Union investigate whether the search company has violated antitrust regulations.

Last week, European Union competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said his office is "very serious" about its investigation into Google's … Read more

Although it has been investigating Google for a considerable amount of time, the European Union's competition office is not ready to decide on the case just yet.

"We are not yet there. This is a complex case," European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said of his office's Google investigation in an interview with Reuters. "We are not in a hurry. We are very serious."

The European Commission launched an investigation into Google's search practices back in November 2010. The investigation followed complaints from search providers, U.K.-based price comparison site Foundem, French … Read more

The Federal Trade Commission has hired a former Justice Department prosecutor to play a crucial role in determining whether it should charge Google with antitrust violations.

The FTC confirmed to The Wall Street Journal last night that it had hired Beth Wilkinson, an attorney at law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. In her new role, Wilkinson, who is also a former Department of Justice prosecutor, will help lead the team that could decide whether the FTC believes that Google violated antitrust regulations and, if so, prosecute the company as well.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, … Read more